HLF

i hav hand-crafted a wooden popper,but i hav not made tha mouth,so any idea to make a dome-shaped mouth???
ONCE I HAV DONE WITH THE POPPER,I WILL POST A PIC ASAP THKS....

You can do it with a set of carving knife but it does take some patience. If by drilling, you may need to find a drill bit of that size and shape. Either way, you can use a drill to dig out some of the wood first and finish it with the carving tools.

does tackle shops sell carving knife???

Just go to normal DIY store i doubt tackle shop sell those

The carving tools I was talking about look something like this


You should be able to get them from art and craft or even stationary shops or as zufeeqhar suggestd. Also, you may want to read this tutorial from sfas on making your own popper, seems like an easier method.

I've used penknife, but it is a bit unpredictable if newbie use it, as the blade may break off sometimes. unfortunately, I can't find a sharper carving knife that is affordable. The penknife is the 9mm wide blade one. Bigger and smaller size penknife seems less easy to carve with.

The carving tool in the picture is quite soft. I can't get the hang of it. We used to carve jelutong wood block in art class with it, but the blade spoil very fast.

Popper's mouth seems not that easy to work on. I was told to use some sphere-shape burrs, and there is a type of round bits that look like air stones, this is cheap. It has smooth and rough types. The last time I tried, I use handdrill, which is too much work, if using a power drill might be better but I didn't try that. It also depends on the type of wood.

Hi BeachBum, welcome to HLF.

Ah, some insights to making poppers. What type of wood did you use to make your popper? These hand tools does seem taking a lot of work, using a drill would be ideal as it will give you a uniform shape. If you don't have a power drill, I guess you could get a dowel with a ball edge and wrap it with the coarsest sandpaper and start grinding.

Thanks for the welcome, I jump over from FNR actually. hehe..

FNR is being replaced by wat-the-fish now, I'm sure you're aware of that. But it doesn't really matter which fishing forum you go to because they're more or less the same people posting.

thks 4 all advice,i have made the popper alrd,but how 2 attach hooks on it???can i use eyed screws???

You can use a suitable piece of loosely twisted stainless steel wire.
like below, use epoxy to fill in the hole together with the wire. you can bent the ends of the wire backwards like the barbs of hook, but I'm unable to illustrate it here. The twisting is further in, or else the lure may spiral when in use.
CXXXXXXX

I use another method, which the wire runs through the lure body inside.

Suitable Eye screws are hard to find, and I'm not able to prevent it from loosening.

I borrowed a power drill recently, so I thought I'll make the popper's cup face, using the polishing stone that looks like aquarium air stone. I used hand drill before with the polishing stone, and it was hard work. However, with a power drill, it is done within 4-5 mins. The cup face is quite smooth. As in the picture, I use masking tape to tape the drill onto a piece of wood and then use G clamp to clamp on the chair. It is not a stable setup, if anyone follow me, pls use you own judgement to secure your equipment properly.

Heh, that's good way if you have a power drill with you. Where can one get that polishing stone from? DIY stores?

These can be found at hardware shops. Places like Rochor centre or nearby hardware shops. and I think saw before at Daiso.

Thanks for the tip.